Fox & Friends Brian Kilmeade struggled to land any punches on Senator Bernie Sanders Wednesday morning in an interview with with one of Sanders’ advisors. The Fox News host deployed the usual anti-Sanders talking points, but guest Chuck Rocha easily batted them away.

Kilmeade has been pushing the idea that Sanders would turn the US into another Venezuela since the Vermont senator announced his presidential bid on Tuesday. He’s also promoted the idea that Democrats shouldn’t be happy to let Sanders, an independent, run for their nomination. Kilmeade tried both of these talking points with Rocha.

“So, what do you think is the perfect model for him to run on, Venezuela or Cuba?” Kilmeade asked.

“I think FDR is the best model,” Rocha replied. “They called FDR a socialist for creating Social Security. And yeah, Brian, I realize we were in a depression at that time. But called Lyndon B. Johnson a socialist for creating Medicare. We want to empower people and not empower Wall Street.”

“And I give Donald Trump some credit on this,” Rocha said. “He spoke to people. He thought that people would believe him, that he would actually change things. Bernie Sanders is that person who’s out there with that message.”

Kilmeade didn’t try to defend President Trump from criticism and notably didn’t push the Venezuela comparison. This is despite the Venezuela talking point emerging as a major line of attack against Sanders. In fact, Kilmeade barely mentioned socialism at all during the interview, a distinct departure from the network’s usual take on Sanders. Kilmeade seemed to be looking down at his desk for much of the interview.

Kilmeade moved on to his new talking point: Sanders is not a Democrat.

“Chuck, he’s not even a Democrat,” Kilmeade said. “He had his own reprisal to the President’s State of the Union address. He doesn’t even march within those circles. He isn’t even trying to …. Why is the party even letting him in?”

“You have a great point,” Rocha said. “You know, he did a State of the Union himself to just people who subscribe to his Facebook page and people made all of this big brouhaha. It was after Stacey Abrams, who we respect immensely. Bernie Sanders is a democratic socialist and he has been caucusing with the Democrats in the Senate for years.”

Kilmeade again didn’t push Rocha on the issue of Sanders’ relationship to the Democratic Party, instead saying: “Alright, I guess we gotta go.”

“A lot of spending, a lot of giveaways and, I guess, a lot of taxes going up. But people are responding on the left,” Kilmeade finished